Reviewed by John Irvine

As you will recall from the article in the Living Composers Society series in CR15, all of Tavener's music is directly inspired by his Orthodox faith and his adherence to Byzantine philosophy of art and life. This piece is no exception. Like "The Protecting Veil", it's scored for cello and strings, but it's much, much shorter - only 10 minutes. A brief meditation on "the remembrance of death" and "the unknown Paradise promised to us, yet to come." "Eternal Memory" is divided into three sections: a serene opening depicting Paradise Lost, a serene ending depicting Paradise to come, with a grotesque parody of the same in the middle section depicting the graceless state in which we now find ourselves. We hear attempts to build paradise by our own means: but all is illusory and the attempt fritters away to nothing and is replaced by the drone-like theme of eternity. Paradise endures in spite of our ignorance of it or perhaps in spite of our indifference to it. Stephen Isserlis, who played us "The Protecting Veil", again plays beautifully for Tayener. What more can I say? Buy it, and you can't possibly be disappointed.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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